In this video, The Rawtarian explains why you need both a blender and a food processor for the raw food lifestyle, and what the difference is between the two. (In short, blenders are for wet recipes like soup, and a food processor is for drier recipes like pie crust or brownies.) For specific recommended brands, check out the Appliances page.

Video Transcript

Hi. I’m Laura-Jane The Rawtarian from therawtarian.com and this is just a quick video to answer one of your most frequently asked questions which is regarding food processors and blenders and do you really need them both. So what I’m going to give you is the overall scoop if you’re going raw and what you need. So, clearly, number 1, if you are trying to go raw today and in your kitchen you have absolutely nothing, well then you’re just going to have your cutting board and knife and you’re going to be good to go. But realistically, we want you to take the next step which would be to get a blender and/or a food processor. Now clearly, I would recommend you to get both of those things on day 1. They don’t have to be expensive. You’ll know that I’m a huge fan of a high speed blender called the Vitamix and definitely that’s going to be your long term solution is to get an amazing blender but just getting started, just use any blender that you can get. So basically, what I would suggest to start off with is to get one blender and one food processor on day 1. Either of those things don’t have to be too expensive. A food processor could be around $50 and a blender could be around even as low as $25. Now the quality is definitely going to vary especially in the blender.

But why do you need both of those things? Don’t they do the same thing? They both have blades. Well, what I like to use to explain it is this smoothie. See how the smoothie is very liquidy and it is very moist? Well, a blender is what you’re going to use to make things that are very liquidy for lack of a more technical term, whereas a food processor, you’re going to use that to make things that are drier or more dry. So that may be a pie crust. That might be a cracker batter. A variety of things like that. So that’s why I want you to get both of those things right away so you can make smoothies and soups and sauces and pudding in your blende. And in your food processor, you can make raw food recipes like, as I mentioned, pie crust, brownies, cracker batter. What else do I use in my food processor? A whole whack of things. I also make some chunkier spaghetti sauces or salsas and things like that in my food processor. So that is really what I would suggest you would start with.

Now one thing you may notice if you’re interested in raw food is that I did not necessarily suggest you get a dehydrator. So in some more complex dehydrator recipes, you will—sorry. In some more complex raw food recipes, you will notice that they’re calling for a dehydrator which essentially just dries out the food so that you can take up really wet—whoops, my lemon!—a really wet veggie burger patty and then pop it in the dehydrator, and it will get all the moisture removed from the patty so it’s going to be nice and dry and get that texture that you might really miss like cracker texture or pizza crust texture. Dehydrating and a dehydrator is an additional expenditure which you may not be up for. But number 2, I definitely suggest you hold off on dehydrating until you have tried tons of recipes in your food processor and your blender and really only add the dehydrator when you are just so sick of having hundreds of smoothies because you may have on every morning so hundreds can add up fast. So for example, with me, I got a blender first, for sure. A crappy little one. And I burnt that one out really quickly. The motor died because I was using it multiple times per day. Then soon after, I definitely got a food processor. But then I think for me, about 6 months later, I upgraded and got the Vitamix which was very expensive but totally worth it because it can pulverize an avocado seed into a drinkable drink. But then I didn’t get a dehydrator probably maybe until—I can’t remember exactly—it was probably in 2009. After the Vitamix, I believe. So maybe 8 months after I’ve been totally raw. And I think that transition is good because I got really used to using my food processor, using my blender, and then later I was able to add more excitement into my raw food recipes by using my dehydrator.

So that’s a general overview of some equipment and the order that you should get them in. but if you’re just watching this and you’re just staring out today, I want to encourage you to just use whatever you have in your kitchen. So frequently, I’ve got a ton of different recipes at my website at therawtarian.com and it’ll clearly tell you which piece of equipment to use and just use whatever you’ve got on hand today but makes plans to upgrade in the future.

So thank you so much for joining me. I look forward to seeing over at therawtarian.com and I’m really appreciative of having you here. So have a wonderful day.

This information is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. I encourage you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with like-minded, qualified health care professional(s). I wish you success on your raw journey!

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